World Running Short on Wine

Production can't keep up with demand on a global level

(Newser)
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A worldwide wine shortage? Technically speaking, it's already happened, reports Quartz. And what's more, things are on track to get worse. Stats compiled by Morgan Stanley Research show that the world fell 300 million cases short of demand last year, the biggest in-the-red number in half a century. The problem is rather simple despite the scale: Everyone is drinking more—especially the US and China—even as production is dropping.

Last year, for instance, production worldwide fell 5%, mostly because of lousy weather in France and Argentina, reports CNNMoney. The 2013 harvest will be much stronger, but Roberto Ferdman at Quartz warns that one solid year isn't going to matter much in the long run. "Europe, which has easily been suffering the steepest decline in wine production (roughly 25% since 2004) will have to reverse its recent bout of poor harvests well into the century to continue supplying the world," he writes. (Click to read about why bad wine smells the way it does.)

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